With the loss of its leading scorer, the Texas Tech men's basketball team will look to senior guard Martin Zeno to take on a leadership role in the 2007-08 season.
The Red Raiders enter the season without Jarrius Jackson, who led the team in scoring last season with 19.9 points per game. Tech will look for the leadership not present in the 2006-07 season from the four returning seniors -including Zeno.
"We had very, very poor leadership last year," Tech coach Bob Knight said. "You have to have it from seniors, or those that have played the most, but when it isn't there, you've got to get it elsewhere. And when you don't get it elsewhere, then we're not sure that isn't a problem this year. We're just trying to see where we're going to be with that phase of everything this year."
Zeno scored 16.6 per game in 2006-07 and played the second most minutes with 35.6 minutes per game, behind Jackson's 38. Zeno enters the season 17th on the Red Raiders' all-time scoring list; Jackson finished his Tech career second on the list with 2,221 points.
Zeno has been named a Preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention selection - the only Red Raider named to an All-Big 12 preseason list - while Texas guard D.J. Augustin and Texas A&M forward Joseph Jones make the Preseason All-Big 12 first team.
Zeno said his role as a leader is needed on a Red Raider squad planning to face some challenges during the upcoming season.
"Teams with leadership usually prevail when things get going," he said. "So I feel that's what I have to do."
Practice has been key for demonstrating leadership as Zeno continues to help younger players new to Knight's system while providing an example for his teammates.
This is some of the criteria Tech forward Michael Prince said is necessary for filling the role of a leader.
"I think everybody's pretty much on the same page; Zeno's a pretty good leader," Prince said. "I think we're going to be a lot closer as a team than last year. He's doing good right now. If he wants people to play defense, then he's going to have to step up and have his defense up there. If someone messes up or makes a mistake, he needs to correct it."
While the Red Raiders are looking for another berth in the NCAA Tournament, Knight said Zeno realizes the importance of filling a role that was never present in 2006-07.
"He has to be a leader," Knight said. "He's what I was talking about last year, when we don't have any leadership from seniors last year, then Martin has to step into it. That's not an easy thing to do. Now, I think Zeno understood our lack of leadership to the extent that we didn't have it. But he didn't understand that this is something he should be working at, something he should be doing last year."
The Red Raiders will start the season against UC-Riverside at 1 p.m. Nov. 10 at the United Spirit Arena.
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